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Critical friends



Critical friends

March 8, 2018

“It’s a privilege to be allowed to build in a National Park. People should see it as such and design buildings that both respond to and make a real contribution to the South Downs’ landscapes.” Graham Morrison is part of an independent panel of expert architects and designers giving up their time to push for better design in the National Park.

From changes to farm buildings, to much-needed new homes and business space, development is inevitable – even in a National Park. Graham Morrison is Vice Chair of the South Downs National Park’s Design Review Panel and his list of achievements include a 2016 OBE for services to architecture. “People often see planning authorities as there to prevent the bad. That’s not enough, we want to promote the good.”

“We are the South Downs National Park Authority’s (SDNPA) critical friends,” continues panel chair Mark Penfold. “Here to help applicants and the National Park Authority bring forward the kind of schemes the National Park deserves.”

The Design Review Panel was set up five years ago to support the SDNPA’s commitment to encourage high quality, contextually sensitive and sustainable landscape and building design in the National Park. While panel’s role is purely advisory, their comments carry a lot of weight. Panel reports are addressed in planning committee reports and may be used at public enquiry.

Members of the Design Review Panel visit Tidemills.

Because of the timescales involved in bringing development forward, we are just starting to see the results of their work come to fruition. Mark and Graham are taking a break from the panel’s AGM at Depot Cinema in Lewes, a welcome opportunity for the panel members to appreciate this particular success story. “We saw the designs for the Depot come through three times,” says Mark. “Progress was slow at first and we could see that the initial scheme wasn’t responding to the site’s challenges. But new architects came in who listened to and worked with us and the results speak for themselves.” Depot recently won two regional awards from the Royal Town and Planning Institute and is currently shortlisted for a national award.

“Not every scheme can be an exemplar like Depot,” Mark continues, “but we expect people to produce the best possible schemes that they can. The National Park deserves better than ‘safe’ or mediocre design.” They are both excited by a forthcoming planning application for a new railway bridge at Tide Mills.

There is a huge breadth of expertise held by the different panel members, who meet once a month to look at three or four schemes, and they all give their time to the National Park for free. Mark puts this down to the support they receive from SDNPA officers, Members and each other: “There’s a definite sense that we can draw on much higher expectations than in a normal Local Authority. I really enjoy our meetings, building a collective response to applications – even when we’re at opposite ends of architectural thinking. I come away from them feeling invigorated and think the other panel members would say the same.”

“There’s a sense that we’re not just dealing with the individual schemes in front of us,” continues Graham. “We’re part of a bigger picture and showing the contribution that design can make to place making. It’s really remarkable that members of the SDNPA Planning Committee regularly give up their time to sit in on our meetings – listening and observing to our discussions. I sit on other Design Review Panels but this is the only one I’ve heard of where that happens.”

Is it ever frustrating? “When you see poor schemes come through from people who should be able to do better,” says Mark. “We run workshop sessions which applicants can request or we might suggest. That’s an amazing resource. There are some really exciting sites coming through from the Local Plan. The former Syngenta site near Fernhurst is very unusual. There will be a huge challenge to build a community there.”

“Buildings like Depot are still the exception,” says Graham. “Housing development is the biggest construction activity and the biggest challenge. We want to encourage developers to avoid sameness and suburbanisation. I’d say that about housing anywhere but it’s even more important in the National Park. The frustration energises you to work harder to get it right.”

Find out more about the Design Review Panel